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Huawei’s slim little 14-inch clamshell laptop makes a big first impression that stands up over time. It boasts a bright, color-accurate screen and Nvidia MX150 discrete graphics in a slim, mostly well-designed body, making it an appealing Windows-based MacBook Pro ($1,579 at Amazon Marketplace) alternative. As long as you’re not counting on using the built-in webcam.

Note that it’s not quite a direct match to a MacBook Pro, at least for graphics work: The display is accurate, but it only covers the sRGB color space, as compared with Apple’s Retina Display with its much larger P3 color gamut. But for basic photo and video editing, that’s good enough.

The system comes in two configurations: a Core i5-8250U with a 256GB SSD and 8GB memory for $1,200 (£1,300, AU$2,230) or our test configuration with a Core i7-8550U, 16GB memory and a 512GB SSD for $1,500 (£1,500, but with 8GB; not yet available in Australia, but probably around AU$2,500).

If all you’re doing is typing and web surfing, you can get away with the cheaper model, though if that’s all you’re doing then the MateBook X Pro is overkill and you could save more money with something like the slightly heavier Dell XPS 13.

Huawei MateBook X Pro

Price as reviewed

$1,499.99, £1,499.99 (with 8GB)

Display size/resolution

13.9-inch 3,000 x 2,000 touch display

PC CPU

1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8550U

PC memory

16GB DDR3 SDRAM

Graphics

2MB Nvidia GeForce MX150

Storage

512GB SSD

Ports

Headphone jack, 1 x USB Type A, 2 x USB-C (1 x Thunderbolt 3)

Networking

Intel Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8275, Bluetooth 4.2

Operating system

Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

Weight

2.9 lbs/1.3kg

From the ridiculous to the sublime

Let’s just get these two design abominations out of the way: the gimmicky pop-up webcam and the awful AC adapter plug that takes up the space of three outlets. While it’s great that you can hide the camera for extra privacy, the angle and location make it unusable. Of course, you can work around both problems with a third-party 65W USB-C charger and external webcam.

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Who thought this was a good idea? It’s actually worse than Dell’s notorious up-nose camera placement.

Josh Miller/CNET

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This is the view of you the webcam shows. If the notebook is further away you just get the up-nose perspective.

Sarah Tew/CNET

But the rest of the design is almost ideal given the trade-offs it needs to make between size, heat dissipation needs and connections. With only two USB-C ports and one USB-A, you’re going to have to go with a dock or dongle.

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